Reggie Bush Should Have Kept His Heisman Trophy
The Florida State University, University of Florida, University of Miami and the University of Alabama, four schools known for notorious football scandals—despite having 18 National Championships between them.
As a native Floridian, childhood Seminole follower and adulthood Gator graduate and fan, I know the frustration that the University of Southern California fan base has felt over the past year. Whether it was being hit with NCAA sanctions that will limit their ability to recruit or the ban from post season bowls, simply stated, it is no fun to see your favorite team gutted by the NCAA powers that be for alleged improprieties by “student athletes.”
From my tone you can probably tell that on this topic I do not take the old school “they should be happy to be on scholarship” tone. Those days passed over two decades ago when the lucrative television contracts doled out by ESPN and ABC ostensibly made major college football a minor league farm system for the NFL.
Headlines this week trumpeted the fact that former USC star running back Reggie Bush returned his Heisman Trophy to the Heisman Trust. Bush’s “choice” was anything but—they were going to strike his name from the Heisman rolls the same way Pharaoh struck Moses’ names from the history books in the movie adaptation of the Ten Commandments.
As we now know, Bush siphoned hundreds of thousands of dollars from a former gang member and hustler bent on becoming a legitimate sports agent.
Was Bush wrong for taking thousands of dollars from shady sources bent on pimping him all the way to NFL riches? Sure he was. But let us be honest, Bush simply “ran game” on a system that was gaming him from the moment he first scintillated fans nationwide with his dazzling array of speed and elusiveness. USC made untold millions of dollars in revenue from a variety of sources, whether it was sales of his university sanctioned (see licensed) jerseys, television and ticket revenue, or the millions of dollars from the Bowl Championship series where Bush and his teammates won a national title and was inches away from winning a second.
Now, with most college fans condemning Bush while believing that order has been restored, the truth is that Bush, while far from naïve, simply played the cards dealt to him in a system where his labors received no recompense.
While the issue of compensation is occasionally raised with respect to college football players, such will never happen so long as the overwhelming number of college football aficionados and college presidents remain stuck in a perpetual anachronism, believing that it is still1958 when the average professional football player made less than a commissioned officer in the military. Back then, many top NFL stars held jobs in the off-season—and I don’t mean Dancing With the Stars or inane reality shows. As such, during this period there was a strong ring of truth to the notion that a kid should be grateful for an opportunity to even attend school on scholarship.
I was raised by a man of this ilk—my father and many of his teammates at then Miami Carver High School, one of the state’s black superpowers during segregation coached by the legendary Nathaniel “Traz” Powell, knew that when they entered FAMU and other colleges in the late 1950’s and early 60’s that the only way to get out of a life of poverty was, as dad often said, “to knock somebody out on the football field.”
And yes, today, such opportunities still exist as football and other scholarship sports provide such opportunities for kids to improve their lives.
However, the major difference these days is money, and until the NCAA recognizes that, agents and their runners will remain as much of a mainstay on major college campuses as professors, librarians and even the maintenance staff.
Anyone who has ever attended undergraduate or graduate school at one of the major football powers has probably had a touch of “willful blindness” as they pretend not to see the star wide receiver that grew up in abject poverty driving down the avenue in a fully loaded Cadillac Escalade with 26-inch rims.
We have to wake up and realize that this is simple supply and demand. One way to stop the demand is to allow student athletes to earn a stipend. A stipend will not stop the hardhearted athlete from being on the take, but it will eliminate the legitimate excuse that some players have with respect to their inability to buy their girlfriend a good meal after scoring several touchdown for the home team.
Also, it is high time that those lucrative licensing agreements filter back to the players too, if not in direct payments then from trusts that would allow a student athlete, upon graduation, to leave not only armed with a degree, but with money to assist with the transition to either graduate school or the workforce. After all—it is their dedication to the game and sweat equity that has earned it.
